Daryl's soldier
by Emmastoryteller
Summary: Erica Saunders is a british army soldier, deployed to Atlanta in order to protect the civilians from an outbreak which have made people turn into zombie like creatures. With a bad past she comes in contact with a group but in that group she dosent realise that her and another person are very much the same: cold, distant and lastly both have a upsetting past.
1. The soldier that I am

**Hi there! I hope you enjoy my Daryl Dixon Fanfic! I don't own the walking dead bit I do own my OC, Erica Saunders**.

"Shit" I forced out as another one of those creatures made its way towards me, groaning.

"Saunders, get out of here! Get to safety, there's too many!" Shouted the familiar voice of Mark Johnstone, best known as only Johnstone from the Sargent. "I'm not leaving any of you, you'll die!" I shouted back, shooting the zombie in front of me, my voice rising as my desperation to get to my team increased.

I wasn't as scared as I thought I would be for I had already suffered bad in the past, but the screams of pain from my fellow comrades were distinctive in my ears and did not go ignored as my long length, brown hair came falling out of its once neat bun sheltered by my helmet.

Clearly thought my hard hazel eyes I could see I was being separated from the people I call family undobtedly because of the massive amount of creatures around. In addition the gun which I had in my dirty rough hands was doing no good in bringing down the flesh eaters which we were deployed to here from the United Kingdom by aircraft to destroy.

My team were sent distinctively to Atlanta in America whilst other bases that were deployed were sent out to other states as America, in a whole is the first to be hit by the infection.

Unknown to us however the infection which was mentioned to us in England at our base was now spreading in other countries, one of them being the United Kingdom where most of my fellow army friends in my team were situated from as well as myself. Undoubtedly it would cause all of my team sadness because their love ones would be in danger of the same things we are fighting now. However if I was to of known this information I would not have been as desperate to go home as the others would have been because I had no family, unless you count my drunken abusive father, who I definitely had no intention of going back to even though I had not seen him in years from when I first joined the army 7 years ago at the age of 24. Now, at the age of 31 I had a loyal family, my team who I have built the strongest friendships with.

They are my family.

Shadows loom around us as the buildings which are high give the space we were in, darkness. We had to shoot them in the head which we soon knew from at first, many failed attempts to kill the creatures who were once human.

I tried moving forward to reduce the distance between me and my group but as I did so a corpse like person grabbed onto my army bag i was carrying which contained most of my survival gear, pulling it back and opening its bloody mouth looking for a good meal but i had seen from other soldiers experiences to slip my arms out of the straps leaving the walker to tumble to the ground. Successfully the bag was off my shoulders but as I turned around to shoot it in the head more zombie creatures came forward, making it impossible to get my bag from the floor.

Left without my backpack it left me in my army camouflage uniform with two guns strapped to myself along with multiple knives in case of emergencies minus the gun from which I was firing from at that moment.

Adapting from the pull I got a moment ago, I turned back to all the firing which I swear was the cause of having more creatures approach us. Turning around though I paused not seeing where Johnstone went as well as other people from my group. However suddenly a hand shot up from a group of the infected situated where Johnstone once was, a scream of pain meeting my ears.

Johnstone wasn't anywhere to be seen. Mark Johnstone was down.

It's been one month since that day which was the day my best friend and comrades died, eaten by the disease ridden creatures. I've been on the road since then, couping up in buildings and I've only managed to wash myself and clothes a couple of times when i get enough water for it.

From having many sleepless nights, half from nightmares which I wake up fighting an imaginary walker and the repetition of Marks death and the other half from actually having to run from zombies I knew I had developed dark circles around my eyes. Similarly my brown hair which was let loose looked like it definitely needed a bath with all the dirt that was in it.

I was on the search again looking for somewhere which wouldn't be zombie infested like the last place I stayed. It was hard though-with all the zombie as it lead to me having to run all the time from place to place which exhausted me.

What made it harder though was the non existant rain which left the hot shimmering sun to heat me up. However all though that was the case I wasn't about to take my uniform off which consisted a camouflage gear all the way down to my black boots which my trousers were tucked into.

I was hot, don't get me wrong, but I didn't want to show the scars which my right arm possessed on it all the way from my shoulder encasing down to my knuckles which were severely grazed from climbing up buildings. The only scar which was shown and not covered up was the one that trailed along the outside of my left eyebrow, stopping at the lower part of my cheek clearly seen and with not being able to cover it like my arm, it was fully on display.

At the moment though, i was crouching on the outskirts of the road and held a machete that I picked up when I was hauled up in a old building searching for water.

I was looking around and froze when my eyes seeped over a few zombies coming around two blocks away however just seconds after there came loads flooding out behind the building reaching my sight. They were two blocks away but close enough that made me hesitate wanting to go out to the tank which was situated across the road from me. It was an American tank but thinking that was the safest place for me to go and see if there are supply's I wanted to get there the quickest way possible.

I stopped though as the sound of horse hooves hitting the ground reached my ears and squinting my eyes, i looked on in shock as from two blocks away down next to load of zombies showed a horse rearing and galloping my way and in closer inspection I noticed a man sitting on the back wearing what looked like a sheriff hat.

Suddenly it dawned on me that the man could put me in danger, exposing me as the zombies ran after him. However when he got to the road across from me the horse reared once again obviously sensing the danger which ended up in making the man fall off its back and onto the ground, dropping the bag which was situated on his shoulder. Without looking back though because of the danger, quickly the man got up and ran off to the side but then got closed in again from zombies seeping in from the direction he was running to.

Flashes came back to me - he was there, Johnstone with a hand reaching up into the air and forcing myself out of it, I reacted and in haste and got out of my crouched position. I wasn't about to let another person die, I was going to help him.


	2. Meeting Rick Grimes

The man was already nearer to the tank than I was as I sprinted across the road, revealing myself to the creatures as I smashed their heads in with the hachete, followed by another bringing my uniform covered arm to place the hachete into the strap on my trousers.

At the last minute the man saw me and with a push, I shoved him towards the direction of the tank. "Go!" I shouted roughly to him, wanting to get him to safety. Quickly he followed my instructions and ran towards the tank whilst shooting out at the zombies with his gun - a python. This made me groan with annoyance as I knew now from definite experience that they would all know where we are situated as they were attracted to noise. Deciding that the man who I was following had all ready made it worse by shooting, helping out, I got out my SA80 gun accurately shooting in the head of multiple flesh eaters.

The man stopped though, his get skidding across the roads surface making me wonder what had made him stop suddenly as we already had alot of zombie creatures behind us.

"No, no, no" the man repeated, the chant making me look up to where he was looking at. My eyes widened at the view, my panting from running was heard from both of us. In front of the tank came more zombies and looking around desperately, behind us they were closing in on us from both directions.

Knowing about tanks because of experience, I moved him down by his shoulders quickly spinning around to shoot more of the oncoming creatures.

"Get under the tank!" I cried towards him fiercly, following up with "There's a hatch underneath, go up it!"

Not looking around to see if the man did what I said my feet drew back towards the tank and struggled to reduce the number of zombies in the herd. Turning around quickly to jump onto the tanks base and kicking the bloodied hands which tried to reach my heavily cladded feet, all I was concentrating on was getting out of here alive.

Lifting the top door of the tank up, not knowing whever the man with the sheriff hat had actually got into it safely I jumped down and quickly shut the door once again the creatures started to grab onto me, but this time my arms.

Making sure it was definitely closed, hearing the banging of arms hitting the tank outside I turned around.

The man was slouched on the side of the tank, his face buried in his hands as he breathed heavily. Slowly going towards him, my hand stopped its course in going towards his shoulder to make sure he wasn't bitten when his head slowly lifted up. Facing me was a man, estimatley in his late thirties with dark brown hair, a shaved face to match it.

My hand retreated back to my side, the same time the man who was looking at me held gratitude in his eyes. "Are you bit?" I said my voice coming out in heavy breaths as my eyes looked him up and down checking for bites. "No" he said his breathing slowly returning back to normal. Before I could say anything else, smiling a little he said "Thank you" which in reply I gave as nod, my uniform making a noise as I brought my hand up to pull my hair away from my eyes.

Looking around the tank I noticed quickly a soldier who was sat by the man obviously dead. Staring at it I noticed the man was still looking at me where I stood from where he sat looking over me trying to figure out why I would save him, stopping as his eyes picked up on my scar on the left side of my face.

Hesitantly I heard him introduce himself. "Rick Grimes" his accent strong, totally different from my British one. However I didn't answer because as quickly as he said that the soldier which he sat next to grunted in response of hearing a vice and just as quickly seeing that it had turned I whipped out my knife and stabbed it in his head, Ricks eyes widening.

"Saunders" I replied

"Erica Saunders" I told him introducing myself but not before collecting the gun at the soldiers side, giving thanks silently as I pressed my rough hand gently upon his name tag on his jacket.

The man named Rick Grimes saw my gesture and after I sat down next to him, he replied "You have different uniforms." He gestured to both me and the dead soldier. "Your not from the American Army are you?"

Shaking my head I replied "I'm from the British. We got deployed down to Atlanta when it started"

Nodding his head in understanding, it grew quiet quickly leaving me to put me head in my hands and groan trying to think of a strategy of getting us out whilst hearing the noise outside from the flesh eaters. We were trapped.

The silence though was quickly broken, with a crackling of a radio...

A male voice came through a radio across from the both of us.

"Hey, you. dumb-asses in the tank. You cosy in there?"


	3. Ready?

I think it was the shock at first which made my eyebrows furrow and my head lift from which was previously positioned in my hands. Rick's facial expression was the same as mine, eyes wide howeverR his lips were parted in disbelief.  
After a moment of silence suddenly the same voice appeared again.

"Hey, you two alive in there?"

Rick was the first to act and may I add, stupidly as in haste to get up towards the radio his head collided hard with the low ceiling of the tank causing the tank to give of a hollow bang as he stumbled slightly. Admittedly I did smirk at the action whilst pushing off of my hands in order to get out of the sitting position I was in. I got up slowly and not quickly like Rick did previously.

"You okay?" I asked making sure he wasn't seriously injured.

At the sound of my question he turned back towards me, his hand leaving the back of his head which he was using to rub the place he hit. Seeing my smirk, Rick shock his head in amusement, before nodding his head in answer to my question as his lips quirks slightly.

Soon though his face turned back to serious as keeping low he quickly made his way towards the radio picking it up calling desperately.

"Hello, hello?"

Wanting to hear a response from the person who was on the other radio I kept in my crouch as I made my way over situating my body next to Rick's.

"Are you two okay in there?" The male voice asked making Rick stumble on his next words in order to get them out quickly worrying about somehow losing the connection.

"We're both fine in here. Can you see us?" His eyes wide.

"Yeah, I can see you." A male voice replied.

"You're surrounded by walkers. That's the bad news" he responded, telling us the situation outside.

Reaching over i motioned for Rick to press the button again, leaning my head over the radio speaker. "So there's good news?" I asked my voice showing hope.

"No" the male on the other radio responded bluntly.

"Fucking great" I muttered, rolling my eyes and then lowering them down to my boots.

Obviously worried about how this was going Rick replied to the bluntness of the males response to my question. "Listen, whoever you are I don't mind tellin' you I'm a little concerned in here"

"Oh man" the male responded. "You should see it from over here. You'd be having a major break down"

At this moment I wasn't really in a good mood and responded heatedly.

"I will have a fucking breakdown in a minute Mate, so-" but after a warning look from Rick not to say anything else I said calmly "Look... do you have any advice for us?"

"Yeah" he said responding to my question hesitantly making sure I wouldn't bite his head off whilst adding quickly "I'd say make a run for it"

I looked at Rick, both of us sharing the same disbelieving look.

"That's it?" I snapped, my patience being lost. "Make a fucking run for it?" I asked incredulously.

"Chill it English. My way isn't as dumb as it sounds" he responded defending his plan.

Gaping at the nickname I was about to give a sarcastic comment but was interrupted by him stating why his plan wasn't as I put it - fucking shit.

"You've got eyes on the outside here." He defended.

"There's one geek still on the tank but the others have climbed down and joined the feeding frenzy where the horse went down. You with me so far?"

"So far, yes" I replied, my voice calmer as I realised he could actually get us out of here.

"Okay. So the street on the other side of the tank is less crowded. If you move now, while they're distracted you stand a chance. You got ammo?" He asked us.

"In that duffle bag I dropped outside—guns." Rick replied.

Taking the radio out of his hand I pressed the button. "I've got ammo but can we get to the bag?"

"Forget the bag, okay?" the male said impatiently. "What do you have on you?"

"I've got a Beretta with one clip—fifteen rounds," he said into the radio. Glancing at my weapons Rick said "My friend has more than me with a machine gun-" but paused when he saw my head shake. "Well one without bullets... She has a pistol, machete and a knife so we seem good"

"Well I kinda would of expected that from an army girl."

Before I could reply to the comment though, the male followed on quickly by saying "Make 'em count, Jump off of the right side of the tank. Keep going in that direction. There's an alley up the street, maybe fifty yards. Be there."

Nodding in understanding I looked over at Rick who pressed the radio button again. "Hey, what's your name?" Wanting the name of the person who we were going to hopefully see.

"Have you been listening? You're running out of time!" the male replied.

"Right..." Rick replied.

Taking my machete out of the holder on my side, I went over to the door that I had come down in to get inside, Rick following me. "You okay?" I asked worried that he was going to back out however when his eyes met mine determination shone through, showing my a part of his old self as Sheriff. Nodding, he shifted where he was crouched next to be.

Accepting that answer I stated "Ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be" he responded and with that my hand twisted the handle, the hatch opening causing the bright Atlanta light to shine down in the tank.

"Here we go!" I exclaimed to Rick my hands heaving my body out of the tank.


	4. Tension

Expecting the first walker, it came at no suprise to me that it was there and I had no problem in standing on the tank and smashing the machete into its head whilst waiting for Rick to climb out of the tank.

In doing so it caused black blood to spray everywhere including the tanks base and part of my face, the speckles of it sitting on my cheek.

Jumping off of the tank I raised my machete reading to clear the way but as I took another walker down the sound of a gun going off behind me was heard. And may I say not just to my ears.

My head swivelled around and my eyes witnessed Rick standing on the tank shooting at the creatures who were getting close to me and also attempting to make a dent into the mass of creatures.

Wanting to smack my head in stupidity of myself for forgetting to give my knife over to Rick, I once again stuck my machete into another head of a zombie however I knew that what I was doing was pointless.

The gunshots from Rick's gun distracted the walkers from the horse and they were now coming our way, their groans leaving an ominous feeling.

Deciding what I was going to do I put my machete back were it belong and took out my pistol which was starting to look like a repeat of what happened moments ago.

Looking back, I witnessed Rick ungracefully jump from the tanks edge, stumbling on his feet until i reached out with one hand to steady him whilst the other was used to shoot at a zombie which got way too close.

Although we were both making it ten times worse by shooting at them and making so much noise, I had to admit the teamwork and having each others back- which reminded my of the old days with my team definitely paid off.

Moving towards where the male voice directed us to go, shooting a pathway we both successfully managed to find the way down the alleyway.

Making sure Rick went first so he was the last out of danger and the first to safety, this didn't go unnoticed by him.

However when turning round the corner, with me shooting at stray walkers who followed us, we were met suddenly by a guy successfully making all of us jump at the sudden appearance of eachother.

Rick was the first one to react and as I was behind him he was able to point it at the guys forhead, making him shout quietly in alert.

"Whoa!" He cried. "Not dead" his hands up in surrender. My eyes widened and my hand reached out to push Rick's down, the gun following as Rick now suddenly realised who it was.

It was the person that they had been speaking to over the radio, and thinking about it the voice suited him, being Korean with an American accent. He had black hair, who looked to be in his early twenties sporting a baseball cap and backpack.

Once the gun was down though, skittish on his feet he moved further in the alleyway his body facing us as he jogged backwards slowly getting faster.

"Come on, hurry! They will catch up!"

And he was right... Looking back behind me, a load of the creatures had flooded their way into the alleyway.

Running after the Korean guy, I grabbed Rick's arm pushing him out i frount of me willing him to run faster. Looking over his shoulder I saw the other guy climbing up what looked like a fire escape attached onto a building, worryingly looking back to make sure we were following.

Successfully seeing we had reached the fire escape he started to climb. Once again I pushed Rick towards it as I stumbled to stop, all of our breaths clearly heard.

"Go up! I'll follow" I shouted despretly when I realised that he had stopped and moved away from the handle bars.

Looking behind me, his eyes widened as he placed his hands upon my shoulders, standing behind me pushing me into the direction of the stairs.

"Get up there! Your not going to be last again Erica!" He responded.

Annoyed I looked behind him and my eyes widened like the way his did seeing the amount of walkers that were there and I hushed my complaint in my mouth, moving at impossible speeds up the ladder in order to make sure Rick had enough room to climb up after me.

Looking back when I was halfway up, I was relieved at the sight of Rick behind me and okay. When I got to the top of the ladder though an arm reached out for me to grab and I placed my hands on it heaving my body over the ledge my uniform scraping the bricks.

When my feet touched I gave a shot nod of the head towards the Korean guy our breathing both showing how fast we actually were. Turning around when I saw Rick's hands touch the top i extended my hand towards him. "Come on, get up" I breathed.

Once we were all up and standing, panting - for me which was mostly adrenaline, we looked down over the ledge at where we once were.

The Korean guy spoke first looking directly at Rick. "Nice moves there, Clint Eastwood," he stated.

"You the new Sheriff and Deputy pair?" he asked, nodding his head towards me, subtly noticing the scar running down my face and how dirty I was as I was still staring down at the walkers.

"Come riding in to clean up the town?" He asked sarcasticly.

"It wasn't our intention," Rick answered for both of us.

"Yeah, whatever. Yeehaw. You're still dumbasses." This time turning towards me, looking at my uniform properly.

When I didn't look up at him Rick introduced himself.

"Rick." He said extending his hand towards the guy.

"Thanks" he added to his introduction of himself.

The harmless Korean guy looked down at his extended hand before meeting Rick's hand with his own.

"Glenn" he introduced himself. "And your welcome" nodding his head towards Rick.

When Glenn noticed my eyes on thier interaction whilst fiddling with my uniform sleeves he outstretched his hand towards me.

"What about you then... Saunders?" He asked gently, looking down at my tag on my uniform whilst smiling successfully making me smile slightly back as he didn't use the nickname he used earlier.

"Erica. Erica Saunders." I introduced shaking his hand.

Suddenly I heard a noise of metal squeaking and taking my hand back I looked town over the ledge, suprised to see the walkers attempt to climb even though we all knew that it was impossible.

"Come on" Glenn stated whilst making his way to another set of stairs.

Following i gave Rick a pointed look when he stopped at the bottom of the ladder. He submitted to it obviously seeing that there was no threat to protect me from and went first up the ladder and not last.

"Bright side? It'll be the fall that kills us," Glenn decided to point out halfway up the ladder.

"I'm a glass half full kinda guy." He replied when he saw mine and Rick's expression.

Following them, once up at the top and going over ventilation panels with the sun shining down on us, Glenn suddenly held out his hand causing both me and Rick to stop.

With a radio in his hand he spoke into it. That's when I realised that there was a few zombies out here.

"I'm back," he said.

"Got guests. Plus four Geeks in the alley." He followed up.

Just as I was about to reach out to my machete and make some quick kills, Glenn spoke out towards me.

"Wait"

Suddenly two men came out of the building across from us, dressed in protective gear. Lifting thier weapons, which consisted of bats they went up to the walkers, smashing their heads in whilst Glenn lead Rick and me towards the door those men came out off.

Once in, the door closed when the two men came back. One of them called morales as I heard another person shout for him to come back in.

All of us breathing heavily, I looked around at what looked like a clothes mall. I still had my guard up, as my hair fell over my face.

Quickly though, as I turned away from the men whilst undoing my uniform jacket so it would leave me with my brown undershirt on underneath with my jacket falling parted on either side, a woman, who was followed by a small group of people came bursting in to the room.

With blonde hair, and a slim figure looking to be in her late thirties she got up into Rick's face angrily. "You son of a bitch" she yelled.

"I oughta kill you both!" She followed up. Suddenly though she reached down and brought up a gun which she pointed at Rick's forhead, directly above his brow.

My army jacket being left half unbuttoned, as quick as lightning, my reflexes from the army kicked it and I raised my pistol from my holster pointing it as her face whilst my body was in a stance.

My eyes hardened like stone whilst everybody looked on suprised especially Glenn who was staring at me, obviously suprised with how quick my moods change.

Look, don't get me wrong. I know this woman was a civilian but she can't expect to point a gun at another person, who in my opinion was actually a good person.

Also I'm not going to let Rick die when it was my fault that he was getting the gun pointed at him. The blonde obviously didn't like the noise we made and it was my fault because I didn't give Rick my knife or any silent weapon to use when we climbed out of the tank.

My hand didn't falter like hers did which was still pointed at Rick's head. I had experience in this kind of thing and when she looked me over properly noticing my dirty uniform she wavered even more.

"Put your gun down and you won't get hurt" I forced out, though I knew from looking at the gun she held, the safety was still on and I think Rick knew this too as he was calm.

Staring at the women in the eyes, Rick was obviously trying to get me to calm down when saying slowly "Erica, Just calm down" with his arms pointed outwards in warning.

The man names Morales, a hispanic -American walked up to Andrea when he realised we both weren't going to lower our guns.

"Just chill out, Andrea," Morales said. "Back off," he urged the woman when she ignored him and although he said it sternly I could see that he was a kind person but just didn't want this getting out of hand.

"Come on, ease up," another woman agreed with Morales trying to get Andrea's attention, who I'd later know to be called Jacqui. She looked to be in her thirties, an African American descent. She was kind-looking, but she also had that same feeling about her like Morales.

"Ease up?" Andrea exclaimed, then angrily pointing the gun at me making me straighten up to and cock my gun, my face stone like emotionless. The noise of the cock of the gun only increased everybody's worries as they didn't even know me or what I was capable of, leading Rick to put a hand on my shoulder sternly as he tightened it as Morales went up to Andrea.

"Back off" Morales said sternly to Andrea not messing around, probably knowing that I wouldn't have as much problem with pulling the trigger as Andrea did.

Realising that fact the woman slowly took her gun away from pointing at my head and she took a step back frightfully when I didn't point the gun down like hers. That's when Rick stepped in going in front of me pushing my gun down uncertainly but when our eyes met his eyes shone with kindness at what I had done for him even though he knew that the woman, Andrea probably would have never of had taken the safety off and pulled the trigger on him.

With my gun down Rick stepped aside as I put my gun back in its holster.

"We're dead—all of us," Andrea scoffed looking at where we stood but not able to look me properly in the eyes. "Because of you two"

I felt my anger wanting to resume again after that comment as she had to know it wasn't out fault that we were shooting the zombies. It was a matter of life and dead, and no offence to her but we didn't know that anyone was around here.

However as soon as I was about to make a comment, everyone but me jumped at the sound of rapid gun fire from above.

"Oh no," Andrea sighed, her head tilting up, her eyes closing in annoyance.

"Is that Dixon?" She asked, her voice showing desperation on how bad this was for the group.

"What is that maniac doing?" Jacqui exclaimed, her head shaking.

"Come on, let's go!" Glenn said, leading the way towards another door.

I followed, staying close to Rick at the back as everyone rushed towards a stairway to the roof which, though a door at the top, was emitting the source of the noise.

Little did I know I was about to meet the infamous Merle Dixon.


	5. Decision

We got up to the roof fast, taking multiple steps at a time. The door which served as the entrance to the roof was quickly pulled open allowing us all to pass by.

Sticking at the back, but still close to Rick, when we got up there my eyes focused on the person who was making all the noise. Gun in hand, a rough looking man - a redneck - who looked to be in late forties stood there.

"Hey Dixon!" Morales shouted. "You crazy?" He exclaimed in shock.

The man named 'Dixon' turned round at the mention of his name, his face morphing into a scowl.

"Hey! You oughta be more polite to a man with a gun! Huh?" He said back heatedly, arms waving in the air. He jumped of the high ledge where he once stood shooting out into the open.

"Man, you wastin' bullets we ain't even got" T-Dog shouted at him. "And you're bringin' more of 'em down on our ass! Man, just chill!"

"Hey!" Dixon snapped. "It's bad enough I've got this Taco-Bender on my ass all day. Now I'm gonna take orders from you? I don't think so, _bro_ ," he commented sarcastically, deciding to get into T-Dog's face.

"That'll be the day." He said slowly with a smirk.

I frowned at that comment shifting where I stood undoubtedly itching to do or say something."That'll be the day'?" T-Dog echoed Dixon's words. "You got somethin' you wanna tell me?" He took a step forward.

"Hey, T-Dog, just leave it, man," Morales pleaded, his hand out, trying to take control of the situation.

He then situated himself between both men, looking at Dixon. "Merle? Just relax, okay? We've got enough trouble." He reasoned.

"You wanna know the day?" Merle Dixon asked, completely ignoring Morales and stepping around him, placing himself in fount of T-Dog. "I'll tell ya the day, Mr. 'Yo.' It's the day I take orders from a nigger." He sneered.

"Mother—!" T-Dog yelled, taking a swing at Merle. The redneck easily dodged, most likely from having past experiences.

At that moment my hand decided to graze the gun at my side, my mind telling me to take control of the situation however just as I was about to intervene Rick stepped forward.

"Hey! Come on, Merle, that's enough!" Rick steely said trying to reason with Merle.

He tried to step in, but Merle just turned and punched him right in the face, sucessfully knocking him into the pipes.

That was it, stuff just standing here.

I looked back to Rick, who thankfully managed to get up, stumbling whilst shaking his head from the pain and dizziness.

Luckily my army training came back to me in this, my feet leading my body towards the fight.

The African black woman, who I would later get to know as Jacque grabbed my arm as I passed her obviously trying to stop me from going over there. "You're going to get hurt" she said, her eyes wide.

Ripping my arm out of her arm I shook my head, looking over seeing Merle punching T-dog who was on the floor.

"Well no one else is willing to stop him, your all just standing there doing nothing" I responded, my voice tight.

With that my feet quickened their pace, jogging to get to the fight.

Bringing up the butt of the gun in his hand, Merle was about to bring it down on T-Dog however he stopped short when he saw me getting closer to him successfully knocking him off T-Dog when I launched myself at him.

The landing was painful as we both skidded across the concrete floor with my uniform protecting my skin from grazes.

When we stopped, I reached up and threw his gun away from the floor which had fallen next to his leg when he fell. About to get up, merle was going to stand up from where he had fallen into his front however as quickly as he thought of that idea I put my legs over his back stopping him.

Stopped from getting up, Merle reached up behind him grabbing my arm and twisting me over so he was over me. Grabbing my hair he sneered down at me "you thought you could-" he started. However my legs kicked him in my stomatch making him groan in pain and release my brown hair from the force. Quickly lifting my legs up I twisted him round successfully bringing his hands to his back and trapping his legs with my own.

Struggling, he tried to get off of me and lift his body from where I was over him, but stopped when he felt my hand travelled up to the pressure point on his neck ready to press hard enough to make him pass out.

We were both breathing heavily.

"I wouldn't if I were you" I muttered.

"Bitch get off of me" he sneered turning round his head to the side in order to get a good look at the woman who had taken him down.

He scoffed when I didn't answer and tighten my legs when he tried to get up once more.

"Sorry, I know you might like this position sugar tits" he breathed out. "but I don't do British army scar girls" he laughed.

My blood boiled at that comment. Everyone had obviously heard the name he had given me.

"That got ya' didn't it girly, hm? He stared with a smirk on his face seeing my reaction. I was literally at that point going to press down hard on the pressure point on his neck with my face expressionless however a hand reached out at that moment.

The hand cluched onto Merles wrists, bringing them up to a pipe situated above his head and handcuffing them there.

"Hey!" Merle protested uselessly, shaking his hand about.

Looking up, Rick's face hovered by my side.

"Come on-get up" he gently said, leading me off Merle whilst sweeping some dirt off from my uniform.

Once up I turned around, my eyes grew to the attention to the group people looking on in shock and some gratitude like T-Dog.

"How the hell?" Andrea muttered.

However Rick saved me from saying anything, noticing my face when he turned to Merle angrily.

"Look here, Merle. Things are different now. There are no _niggers_ anymore" he stated. "No dumb-as-shit, inbred, white-trash fools either. Only dark meat and white meat. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling _together_ , not apart."

"Erica!" Rick called after me, watching my figure depart towards the other side of the room, opposite to where they were cutting up a creature.

Spinning around, but not before grabbing my supplies that I had, I stood up against the wall, facing him with my arms crossed.

Walking over Rick stood in front of me, obscuring my view of the others.

"Where are you going?" He stated with both of his hands on his belt.

Honestly the plan that they had conjured up was good, deciding to get to a van on the other side of the street covered in zombie guts and then driving back to their camp up at the quarry in the east.

However they honestly believed that their plan was going to go smoothly? Call me pessimistic but something was just waiting to go wrong, I mean we live in a zombie apocalypse, what could be worse?

They knew their plan but I also knew mine. Yes, ultimatley they could get to the van but I needed to guarantee their safety and make sure that Rick got out safe.

"I know where the quarry is Rick" I sighed.

"I'll meet you there but I need to make sure you all actually make it out here alive and in doing so there needs to be a distraction" I adressed.

"I have my weapons Rick" I reasoned when he was about to protest.

"-and I have training. I know what to do if I get myself in a mess. You guys do what you have to do and I'll go a few streets off to the south, shoot off some rounds to make sure you guys get out of the city...alive" I said, my hand raising the bag to my shoulder which was starting to ache abit.

"No" Rick pleaded, grabbing onto my bicep when I started to turn myself in the direction of the door, his tone of voice grabbing everyone's attention, their eyes turning towards mine and Rick's exchange.

"Look, Erica. You saved my life back there" he reminded me, his hand still not letting go of my arm. "-you can't just leave, you might not even make it back."

My eyes turned down, but they turned up again when Glenn walked forward, whilst slowly everyone put their weapons down which they were using to dissect the walker with.

"Your leaving?" He asked. "Erica, we have a plan, you don't have to go" he exclaimed.

Pulling my arm from Rick's gently whilst placing my other uniformed hand to his shoulder, squeezing I gave a short guilty smile.

"You are good people" I stated looking at each individual, my hair slipping from my face, fully showing the scar on my face.

"Listen. I need to make a distraction to make sure you all get out fine" I said whilst stepping back from them all, the distance from myself to the door reducing.

"I said to Rick that I will meet you all back at your camp and I will try to."

My words were pronounced stronger because of my accent, portraying that I was going to make it through for certain.

"You don't even have a vehicle to get you there Erica" Andrea spoke up, causing me to look her directly in the eyes.

"I'll find one" I responded, my hands gripping onto the doorway once I reached it.

"I hope you get out safely" I stated whilst looking at Rick and dipping my head towards him.

"See you later Sheriff" I said, honestly wishing i would actually be able to see him again. He was a good man.


End file.
